


Before She Rises

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Dark Rey (Star Wars), Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sith Rey (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:00:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27353863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Palpatine reaches out towards Rey before the events of TROS — with disastrous consequences.
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16
Collections: Bad Day Collection





	Before She Rises

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Call this semi-inspired by The Editing Room’s recap of TROS.

On the long-healed plains of Mustafar, Rey fought off the guards for the Sith wayfinder. 

They were strong. She, however, was better, even as she cleaved through them, as she fought them...as she felled them to the ground. 

Breathing heavily, she walked towards the podium with the Sith wayfinder — a variation of a holocron, used almost like a Sith compass now that Rey thought about it — and for a moment, she imagined Finn. “ _What are you doing, Rey?_ ”

What are you doing. That, Rey thought, could sum up a great many things that had happened since Ach-To. Since everything. Going off Ajan Kloss just to investigate the strange voices in her dream, the flashes of a Sith sanctum — it was foolish. But she had to know...

Taking the Sith wayfinder in her hand, she thought, momentarily, of Finn. Their argument. It would just be a short trip, she thought — but then she got a sinking feeling in her belly that she wouldn’t see Finn again. Not the same, at least. 

***

Exegol. Even as Rey touched down on Exegol, she couldn’t help but notice the stormy skies, the way that nothing but dark seemed to surround the land. She felt at least a pang of guilt for the words she had exchanged with Finn before she’d left; stars, she had, ever since Ach-To, taken him for granted. And why, exactly? Finn had been nothing but good to her. 

She’d apologize when she got back. Face her necessary punishment from Leia, and then...

Rey kept her lightsaber at her belt, the lightsaber that Leia had just helped her to repair. It was fitting that she had it, she supposed. Even if she was a nobody from nowhere. 

The doors were already open. Rey froze in her tracks, looking up, really looking, at the doors that loomed over her. Something, someone — they were expecting her. 

Of course, she had faced worse before. Rey gritted her teeth and walked into the inner sanctum. 

***

Inside. Rey was struck by the glowing tubes of...were those Snoke types, she thought? They looked like him. Had Snoke come from here?

She continued, towards an antechamber — towards —

No. It couldn’t be. Not him. What was Palpatine doing, badly battered, decrepit-looking, but very much alive?

Rey wasn’t one to get scared easily. But she could already feel a rising sense of simple, honest not-right-ness just looking at the...semblance (was that it?) of the Emperor. 

Then it smiled. 

”Long have I waited,” it said. “For my granddaughter to come home.”

”What?” Rey could only say that word softly, in disbelief. “No — Ben said — ”

“You’re relying on what that pathetic failure of a Dark Sider said?” the semblance of the Emperor said. “He...left out a few details. Convenient, all things considered. He was jealous of you. Because he was a failure and you weren’t.” The semblance’s lips twisted in disdain. “Pathetic. He was my hope after his grandfather failed me, and he was too weak to do what had to be done.”

”Details.” Rey said softly. “What...details?”

And then she remembered. Her father — telling her a very sanitized version of how he fled to Jakku. He had told her that he had fled “from a monster”. Now...now Rey knew who he meant. 

Her parents, arguing in hushed voices. “ _...you have no idea what he does to his apprentices,_ ” her father was saying. “ _Maul, Savage, Vader, Snoke — if he gets his hands on little Rey —_ ”  
  
Palpatine sneered. “How touching. I never quite understood the nexu who protect their cubs. Let alone those who protect cubs that aren’t their own..."

”Don’t talk about Leia like that.”

”It’s the truth of the Dark, young Palpatine.” Then, “I can give you what you wanted. The belonging you seek. I can give you back your family, and together, we can do extraordinary things...”

Rey grew stiff, in that moment. Joining him...she would see her family again. Have a family. But what of Finn? Rose? Even Poe — Ri’ia, even Poe, who could get on her nerves at the best of times...

She wouldn’t be Rey-without-a-last-name. But at the cost of her friends...

”I always wanted my parents to come back for me.”

”And you have me, child. Your parents abandoned you — but I...I will never forsake you.”

”Then,” Rey said, “For the sake of family...I’ll join you.”

Palpatine’s sickening smile would have looked better on Unkar Plutt. “Excellent,” he said. “You made the right choice. From this moment henceforth, you shall be known as Darth...” A pause, like the gap between galaxies, black and obvious. “Zannah.”

And Rey could only hope that Finn, and Rose, and Leia, and others, would forgive her.


End file.
